Answer TWO questions on this story
(you can pick whatever two you want to answer from the list below)
I attached the story
Read “The Red Convertible” This is one of 14 stories that make up a 1984 novel, Love Medicine which follows two Native American families living on a North Dakota reservation. This story is set in 1974 when Henry Jr. returns from his three-year Vietnam service. Questions:
How does the red convertible function as the story’s central symbol? What changes does it go through? How do these changes stand for what Lyman and Henry are going through?
Why is Lyman upset by the picture of himself and his brother? When does the picture begin to bother Lyman?
Why does Lyman “drown” the car? Why does he leave the headlights on?
Comment on the brothers’ relationship.
Analyze a single episode in the story (the visit to Alaska, Henry’s watch TV) and comment on its relation to the story as a whole.
Compare this narrator to another male narrator.
Look up post traumatic stress disorder: what symptoms does Henry exhibit? Is there anything about his ethnicity that might impact his experience? Explain. http://acweb.colum.edu/departments/literature/intr… nise1.html http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english320/wa-Erdrich-RC.htm http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich… http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-03- 23/books_feature.html